Seems that GREENPEACE are the only ones that are making a difference...they brought the stuff TO the army to protect and get it out of the neighborhoods
Radiation fears grow in Iraq
Environmental activists have
demanded a clean up of
radioactive waste in villages
surrounding Iraq's Tuwaitha
nuclear plant as fears grow for
local people's health.
Campaigners from Greenpeace
say they have found abandoned
uranium "yellow cake" scattered
across the local community, after
the plant just south of Baghdad
was looted during the recent
US-led conflict.
On Tuesday, protesters carrying banners condemning the
"nuclear disaster" handed over a large canister still containing
significant traces of uranium to US troops stationed at the plant.
Locals said the canister had been left in an open area for more
than 20 days.
"If this had happened in the UK, the US or any other country, the
villages around Tuwaitha would be swarming with radiation
experts and decontamination teams," Greenpeace International's
Mike Townsley said in a statement.
"It would have been branded a nuclear disaster site and the
people given immediate medical check-ups."
'We are dying'
Greenpeace also warned that it had heard several reports of
locals suffering from "unusual sickness" after coming into contact
with items from the plant.
Radioactive readings
campaigners had taken in one
local house had been as much as
10,000 times the normal, safe
level, they said.
There have been other reports of
Iraqis suffering from symptoms
associated with radiation
sickness.
"No one cares about us. We are
dying slowly. Our whole neighbourhood is contaminated,"
Tuwaitha city council member Tareq al-Obeidi told French news
agency AFP.
"We need medicine and good hospitals. Removing it from the
garbage is just the beginning."
Radiation sickness can lead to nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea,
and more serious problems such as respiratory problems, skin
disorders, haemorrhaging and anaemia.
In severe cases, death can occur in two to four weeks.
Looting
The Tuwaitha facility was heavily looted during the recent conflict
in Iraq.
The UN's nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy
Agency (IAEA), had warned that the site would need protection.
But by the time the site was secured by US troops in May, much
within the facility had been carried off by Iraqis.
The IAEA has since been in Tuwaitha trying to account for the
missing nuclear material, and says most of the uranium has since
been recovered.
But Greenpeace says that the IAEA must be given a "full
mandate" to monitor and decontaminate the area.
news.bbc.co.uk
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